Breath & Shadow
Summer 2024 - Vol. 21, Issue 1
"Hunger" and "That Thing With Feathers"
written by
Sharmon Gazaway
"Hunger"
it’s not the vellum stretched
over thirsty bone it’s not the large liquid
liquid eyes that want filling
like two pits it’s not the shaved ribs
for counting nor the knees like gazelles’
on the parched savanna and it’s not the wren-
delicate collar bones throat hollow spread thin
with skin too new for this job
nor is it the tender lips pressed resolutely together
like clasped hands at the altar
it is the silence
of terrible patience
"That Thing With Feathers"
Come with me, let’s walk
under a mourning dove sky
while snow and threads of light
spindle down on this ice path.
Forget our snow-blind houses,
furred flakes padding
on the panes, crying let me in.
See the dove-sky’s wing?
The fading sun can still spark
rainbow-fire from her feathers.
At the end of this day let’s forget
the brawling river under our feet
and our flurry of worries—
smile, we walk on water.
Sharmon's poetry was a finalist for the 2022 Dwarf Stars Award
and is in that anthology. Her work is selected for New Myths' upcoming Best Of anthology, The Cosmic Muse. Her work has appeared in The Forge Literary Magazine, MetaStellar, Daily Science Fiction, The Fairy Tale Magazine, Metaphorosis, Breath and Shadow, and elsewhere. Her work is featured in the award-winning anthology Love Letters to Poe Volume 1 (and 2), and in anthologies published by Black Spot Books, Brigids Gate Press, Air and Nothingness Press, Ghost Orchid Press, Ravens
Quoth Press, Off Topic Publishing, and others. Sharmon writes from the Deep South where she lives beside a historic cemetery haunted by the wild cries of pileated woodpeckers. She is currently at work on an adult fantasy novel. She is most active on Instagram @sharmongazaway.